The general art of dispensing material in liquid form from dispensers is rather voluminous in that there are various known types of counter- and wall-mounted dispensers capable of dispensing a measured dose of material, such as, for example, soap, hand cleaner or lotion, upon the application of hand pressure to either push or pull a dispensing arm to actuate valves or other means to dispense a predetermined amount of the material. The present invention may be considered to fall into the general field of dispensers of this type and, more particularly, of the wall-mounted type.
Further, the prior art, such as Bartasevich U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,772, discloses that it is known in the prior art to provide a replaceable cartridge so that the dispenser can be more or less permanently mounted on the wall or other supporting surface and with the material then being dispensed through the dispenser from the cartridge or refill package which can be replaced when its contents are exhausted.
Such refill cartridges commonly comprise what are known as "bag-in-box" containers which generally comprise a rigid or semi-rigid box, with a tearaway front. A collapsible bag, which actually contains the material to be dispensed is received within the box. The bag has a dispensing tube which projects therefrom and terminates in a nozzle. Once the tearaway front of the box is removed, the tube and nozzle of the bag can be extended and fitted into suitable fitments in the dispenser so as to position the tube so that it can be acted on by a compression member. Examples of arrangements of this general type can be seen in Scholle U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,911; Westlake U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,622; and Cox U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,695.
Generally, dispensers of this type involve a wide variety of bag, box and dispenser combinations and examples can be seen in many of those prior art patents.
Specifically, containers of the bag-in-box type referred to above are often combined with wall-mounted dispensers which include various designs of compression members for collapsing the tubes and forcing a measured amount of material onto the hand of the user. Examples of this art may be seen in Vehrs U.S. Pat. No. 3,741,439; Beguin U.S. Pat. No. 3,768,704; Asplund U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,201; Cassia U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,363; Norman U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,224; Christine U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,242; Christine U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,133; Steiner U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,308; Steiner U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,309; and Frassanito U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,938.
Perhaps the best exemplar of this type arrangement can be seen in Kanfer U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,749 wherein the dispenser disclosed therein includes a back plate for wall mounting purposes and a cover hingedly connected to the back plate and movable between open and closed positions with respect thereto. The back plate has a support shelf for receipt of the box and fitments for receiving the dispensing tube as well as a compression platen against which the tube can be compressed.
The cover includes an operating handle which carries a compression member so that, when the cover is closed, the handle can be moved inwardly, whereby the compression member may collapse the tube against the compression platen to force a measured amount of material through the nozzle and onto the hand of the user.
While the prior art referred to above, and particularly that of the just-mentioned Kanfer patent, has found widespread commercial acceptance, it is believed that still further improvements can be made.
For example, several of the prior art patents referred to above disclose sight windows in the front of the cover so that one may observe the collapsible bag and gauge the amount of soap remaining. The practice usually is that when the quantity of soap remaining in the bag is exhausted or almost so, the cover can be opened and the box and bag replaced. However, inasmuch as there are some practical limitations on the size of the dispenser as well as the size of the replaceable cartridges, this sometimes requires more frequent replacement than is convenient for the end user. Furthermore, it may sometimes be the case that more than one type of material may be desired to be dispensed from a single container.
Therefore, it is believed to be advantageous to provide a container which can hold multiple replaceable cartridge units with switching means which make it possible to switch from one cartridge to the other as desired. In that way, exhaustion of one box will not render the dispenser useless and the useful capacity thereof may be doubled. An example of this approach can be seen in Maldonado U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,895,276 and 5,042,691 wherein disposable cartridges of the general type under discussion are mounted in the dispenser and the compression member which engages and collapses the tube is moved from side to side to engage one or the other of the tubes.
While this arrangement is presumed to be operable for the purpose for which it is designed, it is also believed desirable to maintain the compression member in a constant position relative to the overall dispenser to protect it against excessive damage during extended use because the handle and pressure member are the elements of the combination which receive the most severe stress during use.